We are making this right of reply in response to India’s Right of Reply.

Obfuscation of facts and outright mendacity has become a tedious habit of the Indian delegation. Given the limited time, we will respond to only some of the gross inaccuracies in their statement:

J&K is not an Indian state. India may desire that this should be the case. It is an internationally recognized disputed territory, whose final disposition is to be decided through a UN supervised plebiscite, as mandated by numerous UN Security Council resolutions. This has been recently reaffirmed by the UN Secretary General’s statement that the position of the United Nations is based on the UN Charter and the resolutions of UN Security Council.

All colonial powers have depicted the freedom struggles as terrorism. India is no different. It seeks to deny the legitimacy of the Kashmiri freedom struggle by depicting it as terrorism. Numerous UN resolutions have recognized the legitimacy of peoples struggle for self determination against colonial and alien occupation. The Kashmiris right to self determination has been recognized in numerous UNSC resolutions. The long and widespread resistance of the Kashmiri people to Indian occupation is an undeniable fact. That is why, today, the entire Kashmiri leadership is in jail, even those few who had mistakenly endeavoured to collaborate with Indian’s occupation authorities. That is why today there is a lockdown and curfew imposed over 8 million Kashmiris. That is why, in the past few weeks alone, over 6000 young persons have been detained and hundreds imprisoned and blinded by pellet guns. That is why, an entire people is being held incommunicado, deprived of all communication links unable to voice their anger at India’s usurpation of rights. And, that is why Amnesty International has been compelled to commence a campaign lift the siege in occupied Kashmir.

The OHCHR two Kashmir reports are a charge sheet against India. The OHCHR, Special Procedures, international media and civil society have all given a damning verdict against India for its crimes and atrocities. Not surprisingly India has attacked anyone who has condemned its crimes. But India’s credibility is in tatters. Indian assertions need to be fact- checked.

We are amazed at the frequency of the assertion by India against anyone who questions its human rights record that they do not, and I quote, “have a locus standi to do so”. Human Rights are universal, and their observance and implementation is the common responsibility of the whole United Nations. This simple and powerful truth cannot be wished away by an Indian delegation that is fully aware of its abysmal conduct in IOK and that is desperate to present any question of its atrocities against the Kashmiri people.

The Indian delegate will get the list of around 60 countries that raised concern on its human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK). Don’t worry.